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A multi-organizational team is adapting for DOE use a technology that can help keep security adversaries out of DOE sites that contain nuclear assets. The DOE Office of Security and Safety Performance Assurance (SSA) is exploring the potential to use directed energy weapons technology sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD), named Active Denial Technology (ADT), to help protect DOE nuclear assets.

Researchers at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories flew what is probably the world's smallest fine-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in May, making real-time images from the 6-kilometer range with a resolution of four inches. It was a first for the 25-pound instrument that may soon be used for reconnaissance on near-model-airplane-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Sandia National Laboratories in cooperation with Time Domain Corporation and KoolSpan Inc. has developed a secure wireless Ultra Wideband (UWB) data communication network that can be used to help sensors monitor U.S. Air Force bases and DOE nuclear facilities and wirelessly control remotely operated weapon systems.

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a novel method for controlling and measuring electron spins in semiconductor crystals of GaAs (gallium arsenide). The work suggests an alternative--and perhaps even superior--method of spin manipulation for future generations of "semiconductor spintronic" devices.

A project to improve the false alarm rate and to standardize the certification of fire detection systems in cargo compartments of commercial aircraft is underway with major participation by Sandia National Laboratories, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and NASA Glenn Research Center. Sandia's role in the project was to develop a physics-based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to analyze smoke transport in cargo compartments.

A unique class of materials developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif., may prove useful in textile manufacturing, biomedical diagnostics, and other applications requiring the modification of surface properties of liquids or solids. Sandia's cleavable (easily separated) surface active agent (or, "surfactant"), based on Diels-Alder chemistry, differs from other surfactants in that it can be thermally degraded and easily removed in an inexpensive, environmentally harmless manner.

Sandia National Labs has accelerated a small plate from zero to 76,000 mph in less than a second. The speed of the thrust was a new record for Sandia's Z Machine -- sometimes referred to as the fastest gun in the West.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories recently provided three engineering concepts to small business owner Dale Petty for a gadget that keeps car tires inflated to the right pressure.

A new type of light was detected from a recent gamma-ray burst, as discovered by Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA scientists using both burst-detection satellites and a Los Alamos-based robotic telescope.

A team of University of California scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed the first completely inorganic, multi-color light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on colloidal quantum dots encapsulated in a gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor. The work represents a new "hybrid" approach to the development of solid-state lighting. Solid-state lighting offers the advantages of reduced operating expenses, lower energy consumption and more reliable performance.